If You Watched Betty White at Home, You Missed Half the Show

This weekend, 88-year-old Betty White proved she has the foulest mouth and hottest muffin in town when her appearance on Saturday Night Live boosted the show’s Nielsen rating to an average of 8.8 nationwide, the highest since Tina Fey spoofed Sarah Palin. In an episode packed with winning sketches, some of the live-television magic didn’t make it to air. Lucky for you, and even luckier for me, I watched from inside the studio. Herewith, a few tidbits for the truly obsessed:

When the Golden Girl walked onstage for the cold open, Tina Fey pointed to her and mouthed, “That’s Betty motherfucking White!” The Fey-fixated audience went bananas.

White was treated like any other host. She worked on sketches from nine a.m. to one a.m. the week preceding the show. As is the S.N.L. way, a staffer dragged her by the hand and ran with her from set to set during the taping. White can move.

Sigourney Weaver and Present Laughter’s Victor Garber, who will co-star with White in the romantic-comedy You Again this fall, sat next to each other in the front row of the mezzanine. Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson whizzed past security in his Cameron-worthy red sneakers. Matthew Broderick and 30 Rock’s Scott Adsit watched from the stage floor.

The dress rehearsal ran 40 minutes over and NBC released a few of the cut sketches online. (If you’ve been craving a backstory for Debbie Downer’s depression, click here.)

The ladies ate up their reunion. Before reprising their celebrated N.P.R. spoof, “Delicious Dish,” Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon had an arm-squeezing, eye-watering emotional moment. Fey and Shannon calmed Rachel Dratch’s nerves before the cameras started rolling. Fey also had a heart-to-heart with cast member Jenny Slate before the “Gingey” sketch, in which Amy Poehler proved her acting chops by playing a child on TV while being with child in real life.

At the end of the night, Jay-Z offered his arm to the exhausted White and helped her down the stage stairs. The audience stood and cheered as they exited, confirming White’s suspicion, “Jay-Z’s got 99 problems, but this bitch ain’t one of them.”